Coffee Break

I got me a new coffee mug - but it’s not just any ol’ coffee mug this time. It’s a bona fide I Love ezinearticles coffee mug and it showed up in my front hallway this morning - a complete surprise!

If you do any Google searches at all, chances are good that you’ve run into ezinearticles.com in the results. They’re one of the oldest - and definitely the best known - article directories on the web. Thousands of writers have been posting their expert articles on EzineArticles.com for years. They practically developed the ‘free articles for promotion” model for article directories.

The idea is that you write articles about your area of expertise, and post them on Ezine Articles along with an author’s Resource Box that includes your name and a link to your web site. The articles have to conform to fairly strict guidelines for quality writing in order to be approved, but once they’re approved, they are made available on the Ezine Articles web site along with permission to reprint the article in full as long as the Resource Box and any links contained in the article and resources are kept intact.

I wrote a handful of articles at Ezine Articles back in 2006 as samples to bring business in for a freelance writing network of which I was part - and then more or less forgot them until recently when another of my customers asked me to write several articles a month at Ezine Articles with links back to his site. Since it’s a cause that is near and dear to my heart - environmental and technology related - I agreed happily, and posted another five articles over a couple of months.

That brought my total articles on Ezine Articles to 10, which triggers a review of your account for upgrading from basic author status to basic plus author status - that allows you to post another 25 articles on the site. That’s how it usually goes - but if the editors really like your work and all of your articles have been approved with no problems, they sometimes skip you right past Basic Plus to Platinum membership - which allows you to post as many articles as you want, and shortens the length of time you wait for article approval.

To my surprise, I was one of the writers that got skipped past Basic Plus directly to Platinum membership, making me a very happy camper. But that was nothing to how delighted I was when my son stepped out in the hallway to take out the trash and returned with a package from EzineArticles in hand - it apparently was delivered yesterday and overlooked. Inside was an EzineArticles mug - and a packet of totally nummy Lighthouse Blend Coffee from Door County Coffee - which I am thoroughly enjoying right now, and may just order for myself so I can enjoy it even more.

So - thanks, EzineArticles! Love the mug, adore the coffee, LOVE EzineArticles.com!

Hey, kids! Today, September 29, is National Coffee Day - I hope you’re celebrating appropriately! Me, I’m sipping a cooling cup of Trader Joe’s Bali Moon coffee mixed with Trader Joe’s Bay Blend. I’ve been doing a lot of mix-and-match coffee bean pairs lately, and finding that I really really like the results. It lets me mix dark and light roast coffees to come up with something in between, or pair up a rich coffee with a more acidic snappy blend and enjoy the best of both worlds.

If you don’t have a nice range of coffee selections to pair up, though, you can enjoy National Coffee Day in lots of other ways. Here’s some samplings from around the country:

In New England, get a free cup of Newman’s Own Organics at McDonald’s. Locations in Eastern MA, NH and RI are handing out free cups of Newman’s brew all day today and tomorrow in appreciation of National Coffee Day.

Filterfresh Coffee Service, a Massachusetts company, is kicking off a literary contest to celebrate National Coffee Day. Drop by the Filterfresh blog for details on their writing contest. If you can write an essay about why Coffee is the Greatest Beverage of All Time!, you could win a home brewer and a supply of coffee.

If you’re in Coral Gables, you can grab a free coffee at Buttercream Cupcakes and Coffee - don’t forget to have one of their yummy cupcakes to go with it.

Starbucks will be debuting their new VIA instant coffee at locations around the country this week. Look for promotions locally for a free tall cup of VIA at your local Starbucks Oct 2-4.

I love me my single origin coffees, and I prefer them fresh roasted from indie local roasters. Unfortunately, those are hard to come by here in town - and having it delivered tends to put a major crimp in my budget. That means that I’m always on the lookout for reasonably priced, good coffees that I (and other people) can buy locally. About a year and a half ago, I discovered Archer Farms Reserve Roast coffees, sold exclusively through Target. Yes, Target.

First, a word about the brand. Archer Farms is Target Corp’s specialty food label. Their slogan is Tasty foods at Tasty Prices. If you’re used to buying your coffee for $3.79 a can in the grocery aisle, the $9.99 price tag for a tin of Archer Farms Reserve Roast coffee may not seem like a bargain. When you compare the price to similar coffees of the same quality at $14.99 and up, and when you actually taste the coffee, chances are good that you’ll change your mind.

Archer Farms coffees are packaged in very distinctive silver tins - that’s more a pewter color than the bright chrome silver most people associate with that color. Reserve Roast coffees are “rare and exemplary–grown in quantities that are too liited to allow us to offer them year-round. Available exclusively at Target, these distinctive, single-origin coffees are artisan-roasted to emphasize the remarkable flavors and aromas of each growing region.”

That’s straight from the package labeling - and having sampled a number of different Reserve Roast coffees, I have to tell you that it they generally live up to their labeling. The Costa Rican Estate La Violeta certainly does.

When I opened the inner packaging, the aroma wafted out almost as strongly as if I’d already started grinding the beans. I ended up burying my nose in it to sniff deeply - and passed the can around the whole family, all of whom just ‘mmmmm”d at it. The aroma was rich, smooth and had a hint of the balance that the cup of coffee would prove to have. It was fruity - a hint of berry, a touch of citrus - and a little cocoa-ish, and had an overtone of - I kid you not - Brazil nut. And that aroma filled the house as the beans were ground, and then suffused it as it started to brew. I couldn’t wait to actually taste it.

The Estate La Violeta didn’t disappoint. First, though the roast was medium, the brew was rich and dark. Unlike some medium roast coffees, you couldn’t see the spoon beneath the level of the coffee. There was almost a purple overtone to the color, and the coffee oils were visible floating on the top of the cup. It was lovely. I sipped… and oh, my…

I don’t often use the words “rich” and “snap” in reviews of the same coffee. Often, coffees that are this rich in feel don’t have the acidity to tingle your tongue. The Violeta proves that the two are not mutually exclusive. The first distinct flavor is mildly citrus, melding into smooth, sweet plum flavor tinged with chocolate. The body is smooth, not quite as heavy as say, Sumatran coffee, but much more substantial than a Brazilian or Colombian coffee.

It’s not really a breakfast coffee - which surprised me, because I generally am happy with most coffees for breakfast. This Costa Rican coffee from the Tarrazu region is very definitely an after dinner coffee. I can imagine it with a slice of cheesecake or a tiramisu. The pairing would be pure heaven.

Flavia coffee helps offices go green

I love pretty shiny things. I love things that are better for the environment. I love friendly people. And I love coffee. When you put all of those together, you’ve got a win-win-win situation that is guaranteed to get my attention. That’s why the very nice letter I got from a PR rep at Mars Drinks caught my attention this morning.

See, Mars Drinks makes the coffee that’s used in the Flavia single serve coffee machine. I first ran into the Flavia at my kids’ dentist’s office almost ten years ago. This was long before I ever heard of Senseo or Keurig. In fact, the Flavia was the first single serve coffee system that I ever saw. And since it was a shiny new thing that had to do with making coffee, I had to try it.

It was pretty cool to be able to have a cup of gourmet flavored coffee whenever I took the kids to the dentist. Even better - my son fell in love with the machine, which meant that he was making coffee for everyone in the waiting room instead of climbing the walls and slipping unnoticed out the door into traffic. I loved the Flavia office coffee maker and wondered how much it would cost to buy one for my kitchen.

Alas, it was not to be. Flavia concentrates on office coffee service rather than the home market, so I tend to leave them out of the reckoning when I’m pulling up things to write about. Which isn’t quite fair, since Flavia does make a couple of small single serve coffee brewers for the home kitchen - and I do know that some people out there are trying to figure out how to make better coffee at the office - without over-running the budget.

So, when I checked the mail this morning and found a note from Andrea at Flavia, I figured I’d share it. Here’s the scoop:

In today’s world, companies are doing all they can to try to go green. Mars Drinks recently launched a sustainability initiative for FLAVIA, its line of single serve hot beverages that are made specifically for the workplace.  The first step was having three of its most popular beverages (House Blend, Breakfast Blend and Kona Blend) certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee is grown on farms where forests are protected, rivers, soils and wildlife are conserved and workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped and given access to education and medical care.

However Mars doesn’t stop there, it’s also working to green other aspects of the Flavia workplace experience by offering:

• Cups that use 10% post-consumer recycled materials
• The packs, which hold the fresh ground coffee and tea leaves, are now 20% smaller, leading to decreased waste
• The merchandiser, which displays the packs in offices, is made from 90% post-consumer recycled content
• The rail, a piece of hard material that the packs are stored in, is made from fully recyclable material.

So if you’re considering an office coffee solution, do take the time to check out the Flavia and the thirty kinds of coffee, espresso, chocolate and tea that they offer in Flavia packs for your office.

Kudos to Starbucks and AT&T for their efforts in helping out with the efforts to fight the LA fires and assist those who are displaced by them.

I’m always a big fan of those companies who give “better than money” in community efforts - businesses that estimate how their expertise can assist in ways that a community might not even have considered. That’s what this effort by Starbucks Coffee and AT&T is - a sharing that grows from the things they do best.

As of this past Monday and continuing through September 15, Starbucks is providing free coffee at all the fire staging areas and Red Cross refugee evacuation sites. In addition, AT&T is providing free WiFi at 19 Starbucks stores in the area affected by fire so that those displaced can stay in touch with family and business connections during any time that they’re access is disrupted.

Read Starbucks company statement.

Find LA Fire Red Cross evacuation centers (including those that shelter pets)

Hat tip to LA Times for this list of Starbucks stores offering free WiFi

• 280 E. Palmdale Blvd., Palmdale
• 8349 Foothill Blvd., Sunland
• 3747 Foothill Blvd. #A, Glendale
• 627 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta
• 475 Foothill Blvd. #M, La Cañada Flintridge
• 1929 Verdugo, La Cañada Flintridge
• 1840 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena
• 1135 Truman St., San Fernando
• 19435 Soledad Canyon Road, Santa Clarita
• 24802 Orchard Village Road, #A4 Santa Clarita
• 23792 San Fernando Road, Santa Clarita
• 26925 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita
• 805 E. Avenue K #101, Lancaster
• 1845 W. Avenue I, Lancaster
• 2062 W. Avenue K, Lancaster
• 39904 10th St. West #D, Palmdale
• 39570 Lowes Drive, Palmdale
• 2834 Lenwood Road, Barstow
• 2843 Lenwood Blvd. Suite D, Barstow

Trader Joe’s Organic Fair Trade Five Country Espresso Blend may be up there with the best TJ’s coffees I’ve ever tasted. The can describes the Five Country Espresso Blend as “strong, rich and well-balanced”, and that about sums it up - but man, if there was a way to amplify each of those adjectives by about 100, it would be a whole lot closer to true.

Let me start off by saying that Trader Joe’s is my fallback option when I’m buying coffee. Given a choice and a good cash flow, I love to buy my coffee beans green at Dean’s Beans and roast them myself when I’m ready to roast. Unfortunately, shipping and handling tends to make that too expensive for me to do too often - in order to make it worthwhile, I need to buy 5 or more pounds at a time and I don’t always have the cash on hand to do that.

Failing that, my next choice is a trip to Trader Joe’s and half an hour or so in the coffee aisle. I have my perennial favorites - Bali Moon and Bay Blend come to mind - and nearly always pick up a can or two of those, but I also like to pick up a couple of cans of something different to try. This week it was the Five Country Espresso Blend - and I’m so glad that I let myself be seduced by it.

First off, it’s both Fair Trade AND Organic - not all Trader Joe coffees are either or both, though they’ve got a great selection of both. Second, it’s a dark roast, which is usually my preference. And then there’s the five countries that go into the blend - Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and… Sumatra. Two Central American, two South American and a Pacific Island coffee are bound to make a smooth, balanced blend - and they do.

The aroma is very rich and very dark - just a bit burnt, which was a little off-putting right out of the can. That concern was put to rest in the brewing, though. The aroma that filled the house was as sweet and full-bodied as the best-smelling coffee houses I’ve ever been in. I  could even smell the notes of chocolate and smoke under the coffee aroma before  I even poured a cup.

When I did get around to actually drinking it - heaven! The South American coffees have just enough acidity to keep the Sumatran coffee from tasting flat, while the Sumatran adds a lush, spicy-chocolatey flavor that no other coffee origin ever seems to quite match. The Sumatran is also very full-bodied, which balances the very light mouth-feel that’s typical of South American coffees. The Central American coffees also tend to be the most smoothly balanced of all the origins, so adding them into the mix was a bit of genius.

I highly recommend this one for anyone that enjoys espresso - but you don’t have to make espresso to enjoy it. I loved it just fine made in my standard auto drip coffee maker.

Did you miss me? It’s been a long, hot summer here in New England, and with a pair of teen boys to keep me busy, I haven’t had much time for enjoying coffee, let alone writing about it. But all that is about to change - they go back to school tomorrow and… I’m back!

Even though I haven’t had much chance to write about coffee for the coffee break blog, I have kept up on some things. For instance -

I managed to get my hands on some Marley Coffee One Love Ethiopian Yrgacheffe and it is pure heaven. It’s everything that Yrgacheffe is known for - and then some. The flavor is complex with hints of blackberry and floral notes and a touch of citrus, and it’s got enough body to feel like dessert. Which is when I drink it most often. It’s a bit pricey, especially when you add in the shipping, but it was a special treat for moi and worth every penny of it.

And in the news today - Starbucks has announced that it will roll out VIA water soluble coffee (that’s instant coffee for us non-snobs) on September 29th. If you, like me, have been waiting since Starbucks rolled out VIA in Seattle and Chicago last February to give it a try, your wait is almost over. VIA should be available at your local Starbucks by the end of the month. It may also be available at Costco stores, since that was part of the Chicago and Seattle deal, but the announcement didn’t state that specifically so your guess is as good as mine.

I’ve also had the chance to stock up on a number of other coffees - notably several Trader Joe coffee staples, so you can look forward to reviews of some of the standard - and not so standard - Trader Joe brews, as well as several of the Reserve coffees sourced by Target for sale at their stores. So get ready for a new, improved Coffee Break blog as we swing into a new school year and I get to enjoy my morning coffee again.